Robert Downey Jr. and Alan Arkin have been drafted by director Steven Soderbergh to star in a segment of Eros, a film comprised of short films by Soderbergh, Michelangelo Antonioni and Wong Kar-wai. Variety says the actors are shooting the Soderbergh-scripted leg of the film this week.

Soderbergh is filming his part of the film while prepping Ocean's Twelve with his Section Eight partner George Clooney and producer Jerry Weintraub. They expect to shoot the ensembler next February, releasing the film in late 2004. George Nolfi is rewriting his script, which will be set in Europe.

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“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

I just saw the original "Nine Queens". Solid con-artist stuff; a little predictable, but a lot more clever than the average movie of this genre. I'm hoping the American remake would throw in some plot twists of its own, rather than rehash the original exactly. I'm picturing Benicio Del Toro as the older con artist, and maybe... Casey Affleck as the young one.

Jordan also has an eye to direct the project, which came from a story developed by Soderbergh and Biderman. The film will concern a vulnerable private investigator and a prostitute in modern-day Gotham.

Jordan's most recent feature, The Good Thief starring Nick Nolte, will be released April 2 by Fox Searchlight.

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“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

Jordan also has an eye to direct the project, which came from a story developed by Soderbergh and Biderman. The film will concern a vulnerable private investigator and a prostitute in modern-day Gotham.

Jordan's most recent feature, The Good Thief starring Nick Nolte, will be released April 2 by Fox Searchlight.

Ashton Kutcher's very public profile has cost him a role in an upcoming Steven Soderbergh movie, insiders claim. The 25-year-old actor, currently dating 41-year-old Striptease beauty Demi Moore, was reportedly approached by the Traffic and Erin Brockovich director with a view to being cast in one of his soon-to-shoot projects. But according to sources at Soderbergh's production company Section Eight, the film-maker was unsure if Just Married star Kutcher "was up to par professionally" for the job. According to American magazine the Star, Kutcher read from a script for K Street - George Clooney's Washington, DC, political drama - as an audition for one of six upcoming Soderbergh projects, and was told he was being considered for the heart-throb in one of them. But in return, sources say Soderbergh asked that Kutcher shun the celebrity spotlight. A source explains, "Steven told Ashton, 'If I see you pose for the cover of one more magazine or photographed at more parties, I'll take you off the picture.' Steven made it clear he wanted to work with an actor, not a party boy." Although Kutcher stayed away from parties to secure the role, Soderbergh reportedly became annoyed at all the attention he received for the second season of his prank show Punk'd, which premiered last month - and called off the collaboration on October 23. The source tells the publication, "Steven alluded that Ashton was too much of a prankster and that he just didn't feel an audience would see him as the character rather than 'the kid with Demi Moore'." Soderbergh's representatives deny the claims.

Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary: the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

Director of ‘Sex, Lies and Videotape’ Is Cut From Real Role as Sex-Trial Juror Source: New York Times

You would think that the writer and director of a film called “Sex, Lies and Videotape” would be the perfect choice for the jury in a sex trial.

If so, it was a missed opportunity for Steven Soderbergh, the author of the 1989 film, which won a Golden Palm in Cannes. Mr. Soderbergh was called for the jury pool yesterday in the trial of Lina Sinha, 40, a director and teacher at an Upper East Side Montessori school who is accused of the statutory rape and sodomy of two teenage boys.

The judge dismissed Mr. Soderbergh because the director said he was busy, but only over the strenuous objections of the defense lawyer, Gerald L. Shargel, and not before Mr. Soderbergh had answered a few questions.

In the case, being heard in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, Ms. Sinha, who is on leave from the school, has maintained her innocence.

When the prosecutor suggested that some jurors might be thinking, “Where was that teacher when I was around?” several of the would-be jurors, women included, could not help giggling or smiling, but not Mr. Soderbergh.

Mr. Shargel asked the jurors if they were the type to make snap decisions — say, in “three seconds, five seconds” — rather than listen to the whole case.

“Mr. Soderbergh?” Mr. Shargel asked.

“Not in a trial,” Mr. Soderbergh replied, deadpan.

Justice Carol Berkman kept the prosecutor, Rachel L. Hochhauser, and Mr. Shargel on a tight leash, giving them only 20 minutes to question each panel of prospective jurors. When Mr. Shargel expressed a mild hope that the judge would be flexible, she replied: “Mr. Shargel, I take yoga and Pilates. I’m quite flexible.”

She also told the jurors not to believe everything they see on television, adding, “I’m nothing like that judge in Miami.” A few of the jurors, at least, seemed to get the reference to Larry Seidlin, the former Bronx cabby who ruled last week in a dispute over custody of the body of Anna Nicole Smith.

After the questioning, Justice Berkman informed Ms. Hochhauser and Mr. Shargel that she was dismissing Mr. Soderbergh, among others.

“I dissent,” Mr. Shargel protested, to no avail.

Mr. Soderbergh, who is working on a movie called “Guerrilla,” about Che Guevara, walked out carrying a book about Lenin under his arm.

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“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol